Scud and Woody: Compatriots maybe but a grudge match definitely
By RICHARD HINDS
A massive transfusion of sweetness and light was supposed to have replaced any bad blood that remained in the Australian Davis Cup squad.
So, if the second- round meeting between Mark Philippoussis and Mark Woodforde can not be described as a grudge match, rest assured it will have a little more edge than most. The veteran Woodforde was the most outspoken of those Australian players annoyed by Philippoussis's refusal to play Davis Cup.
For his part, Philippoussis says he has made his peace with his team mates, but is not exactly offering to restring their racquets. As a result, you can be sure both will be well motivated for their second round meeting which, judging by their respective per formance in the first round, might not be as one-sided as their rankings _ Philippoussis is at 11 and Woodforde at 80 _ would suggest.
Woodforde played near-faultless grass- court tennis in his first match, bamboozling French Open semi- finalist Dominik Hrbaty, who is yet to win in three attempts on the surface, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.
Philippoussis, on the other hand, survived a few early service glitches in his 6-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 first-round victory over Xavier Malisse, although the fact that he found six aces to close out the final game suggests his powerful motion was well oiled by the end.
Indeed, Philippousis's coach, Pat Cash, says that his man is now serving 15 to 20 per cent faster than he used to, which should strike fear into the hearts of linesmen, ball boys and perhaps Woodforde. ``I'm serving a lot better,'' said Philippoussis. ``I had had a good rhythm today. I got myself out of trouble at some stages with the big serve.''
The latest edition to the Davis Cup squad, Andrew Ilie, has an excellent opportunity to advance to the third round here for the first time when he plays the Dutchman Scheng Schalken. Ilie is, by his own admission, no great shakes on grass. In fact, after his 7-6, 7-5, 6-7, 6-1 victory over South African Wayne Ferreira he said he was consider ing ringing the Guinness Book of Records to find out if anyone else had ever won on the surface by coming to the net just three times.
But Schalken, who had lost his previous four matches here before breaking through against fellow clay- courter Davide Sanguinetti, also only visits the net to shake hands and so the Australian, who has reached the fourth round of the past two grand slam titles, will have another chance to make a charge.
Two Australians who had been given good chances of troubling highly ranked opponents instead became first-round can non fodder, not an unfamiliar roll for the unseeded players in the opening stages of the tournament, when there were no major upsets in either the men's or women's draws. Jason Stoltenberg, a semi-finalist here in 1996, was particularly well fancied against the ``Englishman'' Greg Rusedski, but the pessimistic forecasts of the local media never looked likely to be fulfilled.
Stoltenberg's only chance to even compete with the big- serving Rusedski came when he had a break point to level at 5-5 in the second set, but he blew that chance and, pretty soon, the match. ``That was probably my only chance in the match to get something going,'' said Stoltenberg. ``You only get a couple of chances a set and you've got to take them and if you don't against Greg it makes it pretty difficult.''
Likewise, Scott Draper, a left-hander who won the Queens title on grass last year, had been given some prospect of troubling defending champion and top seed Pete Sampras on centre court. But, as the 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 scoreline suggests, about the biggest problem Sampras had was work-ing his way through the traffic on his way to the stadium.
As Woodforde demonstrated, the sight of grass courts can be handy tonic for those accustomed to the natural surface. But, it can not produce miracles, so there was the usual early clean-out of Australian women. Dismissed on the first day where Nicole Pratt, Kerry-Anne Guse and the promising Alicia Molik, who had shown some pluck in her match against Venus Williams in Paris, going as far as to say she would win the rematch, although you cannot imagine the American shaking in her sneakers upon hearing the news of Molik's 6-2, 6-0 defeat to the Russian Elena Likhovtseva.
Guse put up the best showing, taking a set in the match against Janet Lee of Tapai before losing 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 although, given Lee is ranked 122nd, one place lower than Guse, the result was a minor disappointment.
Nicole Pratt went down 6-2, 7-5 to the 12th seed Amanda Coetzer, a semi-finalist at Eastbourne last week. Elsewhere, the strains of Land of Hope and Glory celebrating a virtually unheard of five victories by British men _ Rusedski, Tim Henman and qualifiers Danny Sapsford, Jamie Delgado and Arvind Parmar _ was about the only thing to cause surprise during the most straightforward Wimbledon opening in memory.